Here’s an infographic with some ideas for using social media in your business. (Read on… it’s down below, at the end of this post.) The tips of what to do are pretty useful and may answer some of your questions. Unfortunately, this infographic does NOT go into the most important question of the lot – and that is ‘Why?’
Why do you want to use social media? What is your purpose to it? What are you hoping it will achieve for you and your business? How does social media fit into your Digital RoadMap? How will social media help you achieve your goals?
Just having a hammer and a saw does not make you into a skilled carpenter. Having paints and a paintbrush doesn’t turn you into a great painter. Having some more cool marketing tools in your business toolbox doesn’t necessarily make you or your smart young marketers into smart marketers.
What are your business strategies? How does social media fit in?
Don’t let new tools drive your business. Drive your business in the directions you want to go with strategies that make sense for you. Use smart tools to help you – but not just because you can. Use the tools that can help you drive your business faster and smarter. Social media provides some cool high leverage marketing tools that you can use, but you also need to get the basics right as well.
I know a few businesses that use social media simply to look cool and groovy – and to appear to be up to speed with the latest craze. They go all out to attract new customers, but seem to forget the incredibly valuable customers they already have. And their staff are unhappy – and are likely to say bad things about the business in their own social media circles.
Social media could destroy your business if your staff and existing customers aren’t happy with you.
Marketing begins at home with your existing staff. Get them happy and keep them happy. Then make sure your existing customers are happy – and keep them happy. Then go looking for new customers, and make sure your marketing activities are focused on attracting the types of customers you really want. Make sure you actually can make new customers happy.
All of these people will talk about your business in some way or another. Many will use social media to talk about your business. What are they going to say?
Social media could destroy your business if your staff and existing customers aren’t happy with you.
Two Questions First
Question 1 is ‘Why should our business use social media?’
Question 2 is ‘How should our business use social media?’
After that, focus on Who should use these tools within your business? And with what voice? How will you say what you need to say? What exactly will you say? And When?
Knowing what not to say and do is important too. You may also need to know how to diffuse a bad situation.
Think about these things in advance before you let your staff loose with social media marketing weapons featuring your business name. Social media can be incredibly powerful, but used badly, social media provides the weapons to easily shoot yourself in the foot. Or worse… it provides weapons of mass destruction.
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